'Obsessive' pilot pictured with political slogan

Here is Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah being stopped and frisked as he walked through security at Kuala Lumpar International Airport for the final time before take-off.

He is then joined by co-pilot Fariq Hamid, who is also searched, before the pair walk onto doomed jet MH370.

A cloud of suspicion continues to grow around these men, but especially Captain Zaharie.

Police have found no terror links to the pilots but they have discovered a strong anti-government bent in Captain Zaharie and are exploring the possibility he hijacked the plane as a political protest.

Sources say he was an "obsessive" supporter of Malaysia's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, and a photo has emerged of him wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Democracy is Dead".

Also, he may have attended Anwar's latest trial on allegedly trumped-up homosexuality charges just hours before boarding the Boeing 777 on March 8.

Anwar was jailed for five years and this reportedly left Captain Zaharie profoundly upset.

It has also emerged the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the family home the day before the Beijing-bound plane disappeared, carrying 239 people on board.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said satellite and radar data clearly indicated the plane's automated communications were disabled and it turned away from its intended path and flew on for hours.

According to reports, the final words from MH370's cockpit gave no indication anything was wrong even though one of the plane's communications systems had already been disabled.

Around 14 minutes later, the transponder, which identifies the plane to commercial radar systems, was also shut down.

The fact that both systems were shut down separately reportedly offers strong evidence the plane's disappearance was deliberate.

Malaysian officials and aviation experts said whoever disabled the plane's communication systems and then flew the jet must have had a high degree of technical knowledge and flying experience.

Officials also say the plane could have landed and transmitted a satellite radar "ping" from the ground — if the plane was intact and had enough electrical power in reserve.

FBI investigators have not ruled out the possibility that its passengers are being held at an unknown location.

Captain Zaharie's home was sealed off yesterday as police spent an hour inside.